KIM · the voice of Tree of Hope
Kim is software.
A voice, and a guide.
Kim starts every tree, keeps the calendar, writes the week note, and sends the invitations the connector asks for. Kim is not a person and never pretends to be one. People do the showing up. Kim does the organising.
Kim is made by Tribe Giving LLC, the company behind Tree of Hope and vive. The service Kim runs on is called Kindness in Motion. Kim is its voice. Every message from Kim says it is from Kim, and nothing Kim writes is medical advice. When a person at the company writes to you, that person signs their own name.
Kim is never a face
Will
What Kim will do
- Start every tree, as a draft, for the person who asked.
- Write to the people the connector names for the five held seats.
- Keep the calendar: what the family says would help this week, and who has taken it.
- Write one note a week to the circle, on Sunday evening, from the record. Short, true, never a request.
- Send the invitations the connector asks for, and nothing the connector did not ask for.
- Say what it is, every time: Kim is software.
Will not
What Kim will not do
- Pretend to be a person, a colleague, a nurse or a counsellor.
- Give medical advice, or say anything about anyone's condition, treatment or chances.
- Count who has not helped. No lists of absences, no streaks, no leaderboards, no comparing one week with another.
- Set a deadline. Kim gives a date. A tree opens on the 3rd; it does not close on anything.
- Name anyone inside a tree to anyone outside it. A business, a room, a stranger: none of them hears a name from Kim.
- Write a sentence of its own. Every line Kim sends is a fixed one, filled from the record.
- Read the family's journal. Kim never sees it.
The signature
How Kim signs
To the circle and the family, inside the tree, Kim signs with its own name, and the next line says what Kim is:
Love from, Kim
(Kim is software.)
To the people who share a tree into their own groups, Kim signs with the name of the service beside its own:
Love from, Kim · Tree of Hope
(Kim is software.)
Five held seats
The five letters
When a tree is started, the connector names five people for the five held seats, and Kim writes to each of them. These are the letters, with the blanks showing. The connector can copy them and send them in their own words too.
To the one who is already thereThe friend who has been showing up since the first week.
Subject: A seat is held for you in [the tree's name]
Dear [Name], [the connector] has asked for a tree for the family, and Kim has started it: [the tree's name]. It is a private circle of people who know them, each promising in advance to show up across a year. Meals, lifts, company, an hour here and there. A calendar, and people on it. You are already there for them. This gives what you do a place to be seen, and other hands beside yours. One of the five held seats is yours. It is already paid for, by the underwriting of the tree, not by you, and nobody else inside is told which seats are held. Take your seat here: [the held-seat link] [the tree's name] opens on [the date it opens]. Love from, Kim (Kim is software.)
To the neighbourThe person who lives close, which is most of what matters.
Subject: A seat is held for you in [the tree's name]
Dear [Name], You live close, which is most of what matters. [the connector] has named you for one of the five held seats in [the tree's name]: a year of people who know the family, each promising in advance to show up. It is already paid for, by the underwriting of the tree, not by you, and nobody else inside is told which seats are held. Inside, the family says what would help this week, and anyone in the circle takes what fits. If nothing fits, that is fine. The year is long. Take your seat here: [the held-seat link] [the tree's name] opens on [the date it opens]. Love from, Kim (Kim is software.)
To someone from the roomThe choir, the team, the class, the shift: the one who can pass it on.
Subject: A seat is held for you in [the tree's name]
Dear [Name], [the connector] has named you for one of the five held seats in [the tree's name]. It is already paid for, by the underwriting of the tree, not by you, and nobody else inside is told which seats are held. You know people the family knows. The tree has a page of its own, place first, with nothing about the family on it: [the tree's page]. Anyone who knows them can take a seat from there, a dollar a day for the year. The patient and the caregiver never pay. There is no number to reach. The tree opens on the date whatever the count. Take your seat here: [the held-seat link] [the tree's name] opens on [the date it opens]. Love from, Kim (Kim is software.)
To the one who will do the drivingThe practical one, who would rather have a time than a thank-you.
Subject: A seat is held for you in [the tree's name]
Dear [Name], [the connector] says you are the one who will do the driving. [the tree's name] is where that gets a calendar: the family says when, and you take the lifts that fit. Nobody is asked for more than they offered. One of the five held seats is yours. It is already paid for, by the underwriting of the tree, not by you, and nobody else inside is told which seats are held. Take your seat here: [the held-seat link] [the tree's name] opens on [the date it opens]. Love from, Kim (Kim is software.)
To the one who said, tell me what I can doThe person who meant it and was never given an answer.
Subject: A seat is held for you in [the tree's name]
Dear [Name], You said, tell me what I can do. This is the answer, and it is small. [the tree's name] is a year of people who know the family, each promising in advance to show up. Inside there is a calendar. The family says what would help this week. You take one thing that fits, and then it is done. [the connector] has named you for one of the five held seats. It is already paid for, by the underwriting of the tree, not by you, and nobody else inside is told which seats are held. Take your seat here: [the held-seat link] [the tree's name] opens on [the date it opens]. Love from, Kim (Kim is software.)
For a business
A business gives roots.
A local business can root a year where it is: a year of Tree credits in its own ZIP, paid in advance, its name on the outside and never inside. To a business, Kim never signs. A named person at Kindness in Motion reads what Kim drafted, signs it, and sends it; the letter says that Kim drafted it. Nothing from Kim reaches a business, a room or a stranger without a person’s name on it.
Kim starts every tree
If someone you know is facing a serious illness.
And there is a room that would host it, start one. You say who it is for, where, and the day it opens. Nothing is shared until you share it.
Kim is software. Kim keeps the calendar and writes the week note. Kim is not a person, is not a nurse, and never gives medical advice. When a message is from Kim, it says Kim. When it is from a person, it says their name.